<p>Or you can get get an adapter thingy (a USB to SATA & IDE Adapter for 2.5 & 3.5 inch hard drives), remove your disk drive from your computer and move any items you want onto another hard drive.</p>
<p>Sounds complicated, but I managed to do it and I am afraid to open up any computer for fear it will explode. Plus, attaching the hard drive to the new computer clear up the problem my old computer had.</p>
<p>I usually buy refurbed mac laptops that have the exact warranty( from Apple or Small Dog) as brand new & haven’t had any problems.</p>
<p>I rarely buy a new computer because I don’t need the very top of the line ( for the next month)</p>
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sk8rmom: With a computer that old it’s possible it’s filled with dust which can cause it to overheat and could cause it to shut down. It’s also possible that a fan has failed which also can cause the shutdown. This latter sometimes is intermittent such that sometimes when turned on the fan will run and other times not.</p>
<p>At a minimum - unplug the desktop from the power, take off the cover (usually very easy to do with a couple of thumbscrews or other screws holding it in place) then use a vacuum to vacuum up all the dust. You’d be amazed at how much dust can be inside one of these PCs. Be sure to get the dust on the fan over the microprocessor (it’s pretty obvious). Also hold the vacuum over the grill on the outside of the back of the case where power plugs in to get the dust out of the main fan/power supply unit. This may be enough to help the problem (assuming overheating is what it was).</p>
<p>A second thing to do is to plug in the power cord while the cover’s off. Be careful what you’re touching when you do this but it’s generally pretty safe since the high voltage is only within the power supply unit. Turn on the computer and see if you can tell if the fan on the microprocessor, assuming there’s a fan on it as opposed to just a big heat sink, is turning nicely. They sometimes get sticky where they turn sometimes and sometimes not. If not then you can probably have just that fan replaced. Be sure not to touch any of the heat sinks (big finned aluminum things stuck to the top of the chips) since they can get hot enough to burn you.</p>
<p>If you find that the fan on the power supply has failed or is sticky then you can replace just the fan/power supply unit. you could do it anyway in the event the power supply is failing intermittently which might also be happening.</p>
<p>Of course, at 10 years old you might just want to use that as an excuse to get a new one since it’s somewhat outdated at this point.</p>